Sweet dreams come to life with Eddie
Small French delights are transformed into individual highlights in no time with the help of Eddie Edible Ink Printer. Find out how Colourful Bites creates personalised macarons for its customers with the help of the direct-to-food printer.
For Essex based Hanane Roche, with her French husband and mother of three kids, baking has always been her secret love. In her spare time she always baked various cakes and macarons for family and friends. She attended a special course for ‘macarons’ in Paris, consolidated her macarons cooking/finishing technique and finally achieved the perfect macarons recipe. Enthusiastic about her creations, those around her encouraged Hanane to start her own business, which she founded in January 2017.
Since then, Hanane is not only producing macarons in a variety of flavours and colours for weddings, baby showers, anniversaries, birthdays, private and business events but also other French patisseries like truffle towers, cake sickles, cake pops, cupcakes and meringue kisses. Customers can order them as gift boxes, special shaped cakes or dessert tables via her online shop. In addition, she offers personalised macarons with logos, images, photos or messages on them for any occasion.
Until now, Hanane used to print on icing sheets, cutting the pictures out with a cutting machine and then sticking them on macarons. Sometimes she wrote on them by hand. Both ways are a very slow, a multiple stage process and in terms of icing sheets also very expensive. For example, 15 circles of icing paper with a 50 mm diameter cost around €21.50 (£18.50) or €1.43 (£1.23) each, not allowing for wastage. “They never looked so neat or professional as hoped and the product quality output was not consistent,” explains Hanane describing the main disadvantages of the previous production process.
In March 2021 she read about the Eddie Edible Ink Printer from US manufacturer Primera Technology, Inc. in a Facebook group. Here she learnt that unlike other available printers on the market Eddie prints directly and in full-colour with certified ink onto cookies, candy, white chocolate, biscuits, macarons, marshmallows, smarties-like sweets and much more. Print objects can be transported to the printer either manually or automatically with the help of a carousel plate.
Depending on the feeding mode, different print widths and heights are possible. If used with the included carousel feeder Eddie can print on suitable food item with a maximum diameter of 89 mm and 20-25 mm height. The manual mode extends these parameters to a maximum of 120 x 120 mm and allows thicker items with a maximum height of 27 mm. This is especially important for printing on macarons. By using the manual feed and a ‘macaron tray’ bakers and pastry chefs like Hanane can print onto finished macarons saving them a lot of time.
The ‘macaron tray’ is one of several new food trays designed especially for Eddie by DTM Print. As an international OEM and solution provider for printing systems DTM Print not only offers own printing solutions, but also works closely with well-known manufacturers like Primera Technology, Inc. The company then sells these products and services in the entire EMEA region including the UK through authorised resellers and distributors.
By using the custom trays production of multiple items in one run (for example up to five macarons) is easy, precise and depending on the item faster too. DTM Print also offers the service to produce trays according to customer specifications.
Of course, Hanane looked for other printers during her research. “But Eddie was the most affordable in terms of cost. Also, it doesn’t require a big space, so it’s the best solution for a small business,” she explains her decision to buy this direct-to-food printer in April 2021.
Printer setup
Installation and setup were easily done with the help of the comprehensive user manual and the product and setup videos that are available on the DTM Print website. At the beginning she had some minor issues about centring the images, but through experience she could quickly solve the challenge. There is a growing network of users online, guiding new Eddie Edible Ink Printer users on how to use the printer, to achieve superb results. For all customers buying Eddie via DTM Print or one of its authorised partners the company not only offers free lifetime support for the printer through these local partners, but also three years warranty, DTM Print approved products and accessories as well as customised carefree all-in-one solutions.
Since the purchase Hanane is using Eddie daily, producing 500 macarons or more per month and printing them10 times faster and with lower costs than before. Printing on a 50 mm diameter macaron now costs less than €0.09 (£0.08) depending on the ink coverage.
“Faster production and good-looking personalised products that everyone loves” are the advantages Hanane, a very creative pastry chef, sees in Eddie. “I think the price is reasonable and it will bring your product to another (better) level. So, I would definitely recommend the printer to other bakers, sweets and confectionary manufacturers,” she summarises her experiences.
The Eddie Edible Ink Printer has been designed for professional and semi-professional users, and keen hobbyists, who want to take their creativity to the next stage. Helping to increase production and profit margins, offering greater customisation and personalisation.
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